Christ's Hospital School, Horsham
Multi-use sports and fitness hub with a unique athletics adventure trail set within an independent schools historic parkland.
Client
Christ’s Hospital School & Bluecoat Sports Hall
Value
£20m
Services
Architectural design
Masterplanning
Sports and leisure consultancy
Large multi-sport facility enhancement of the sports provision across the independent co-education boarding and day school, with the internal reconfiguration to provide increased fitness spaces and improved changing facilities. The scheme will accommodate bespoke active trails - the first of its kind in the UK, providing Bluecoats Sports with a unique and innovative provision, full size 3G artificial grass rugby and football pitches, four new covered outdoor Padel courts, a full size athletics track, two swimming pools, fitness suite, sauna and steam rooms, a café and a creche.
The athletics adventure trail is a unique and inclusive facility and is inspired by the Athletics Exploratorium facility in Odense, Demark. The facility adapts the format of a traditional athletics track into a rolling landscape, interpersed with physical challenges and more unconventional obstacles. It has been designed to inspire a pioneering and imaginative approach to exercise and physical wellbeing through a range of running, jumping, balancing and climbing activities.
The adventure trails will encourage involvement of people of all ages and abilities including those who wouldn’t normally take part in sport. It will provide an inclusive and exciting alternative to the formal and elite athletics facility
The activity stations will be built into the existing topography around Infirmary Drive using natural materials. The area will be heavily interspersed with new trees and wild planting, providing a positive contribution to the rural setting.
The project will provide a modern sports hub, giving the school and local community access to a wider range of sport and fitness activities. All facilities are National Governing Body compliant to ensure Christ’s Hospital School and Bluecoat Sports can use them to their full potential and the combination of elite and non-elite facilities will attract a wider public demographic, supporting the sustainable membership growth for Bluecoat Sports.